Disabled Immigrants May Get Help Becoming U.s. Citizens

February 17, 1997|By PATRICK J. MCDONNELL Los Angeles Times

After years of delay, federal authorities are putting the final touches on new guidelines that could allow thousands of physically and mentally disabled immigrants to become citizens without passing now-mandatory examinations in English and U.S. civics.

Disabled rights groups and immigrant advocates have been pressing the Clinton administration to issue the new regulations in time for many to become citizens - and thus retain federal benefits - before an August cutoff mandated by the welfare overhaul passed by Congress last year.

"This could truly be a gift of hope for all disabled legal immigrants who have been living in fear about losing the only support they have," said Gladys Lee, director of the Asian Pacific Family Center in Rosemead, Calif.

But advocates of reduced immigration levels are opposed to easing citizenship requirements.

"Are we talking about destroying the whole principle of citizenship because a few people on welfare want to become citizens?" asked Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington D.C.-based group that favors reduced immigration.

Congress mandated that the Immigration and Naturalization Service implement the waivers in 1994, well before citizenship requirements emerged as a hot-button issue in Washington. Last year's welfare restructuring, with its mandate that immigrants become citizens to retain many federal welfare benefits, added new urgency for the disabled.

The sensitivity of the issue has prompted another round of reviews of the long-stalled proposals at INS, which had been scheduled to release the new rules earlier this month before pulling them back at the 11th hour for legal fine-tuning.

The agency has estimated that about 300,000 disabled immigrants nationwide could apply for exemptions from current requirements that applicants demonstrate knowledge of English and U.S. civics. Groups working with the disabled in immigrant enclaves say a sense of desperation is setting in among aged, infirm and otherwise disabled noncitizens who face a likely cutoff of federal benefits by August.

Under the plan, disabled applicants would not have to demonstrate knowledge of English and U.S. civics, including answering such fundamental questions as who was George Washington and how many states comprise the nation.

Activists also have been pressing the INS to expand proposed definitions of who qualifies as disabled, and broaden the pool of physicians who can certify applicants as physically, developmentally or mentally incapacitated.

The INS, analysts say, is unlikely to modify the current requirement that applicants demonstrate the ability to take a "meaningful oath," the clinching act of citizenship. During the oath ceremony, typically overseen by federal judges, new citizens renounce allegiance to "any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty," and pledge loyalty to the United States.

The oath mandate is a major sticking point in a pending federal lawsuit against the INS by groups based in California representing Alzheimer's patients and others who are mentally incapacitated. Disability rights advocates want to modify the oath requirement for those incapable of demonstrating comprehension, perhaps allowing guardians or caretakers to attest on behalf of applicants.